As a non-practicing lawyer, was that law degree worth the time and money?
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: yes, but perhaps not for the right reasons. I had a professor in college who used to warn us all the time, “Don’t go to law school unless you want to be a lawyer.” I don’t think I actually wanted to be a lawyer; I think I wanted what I perceived to be the “social currency” of an advanced degree, and I was so unsure of anything in my life at that time, including my sexuality and what was going to happen with that, that law school seemed like a good idea, but only because I didn’t have a better one. And, as I said earlier, I had the good fortune not to have to go into debt to figure all this out. I do think, however, that it was really good advanced training in how to think critically, how to ask the right questions, and how to challenge and confront ideas in a smart and articulate fashion. In that sense, it has stood me in good stead at different times in my career, and the fact is that I was and still am very interested in legal issues, and I sometimes
